Ricketts Updates on Food Supply, Restaurants, Daycare, Gatherings

Gov. Pete Ricketts assured Nebraskans about the state’s food supply, and clarified policies on restaurants, day cares, and other businesses in a news conference Wednesday.

Ricketts said Nebraska is facing an unprecedented situation with the spread of coronavirus, but the state and the nation have strong supply chains. At a news conference, he brought in Kathy Siefken of the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association to reinforce the point. Siefken said she anticipates about 70 percent of products normally in a grocery store will still be available. ”The supply chain is managing their resources. And by that, I mean, the manufacturers are allocating product to each warehouse based on what they've ordered in the past and in turn, those warehouses are allocating product down to the grocery stores. So it doesn't make any difference who you are. Your allocation will be a percentage of what you received in the past. There will be no shortages. Everyone will have access to food,” Siefken said.

Ricketts recommended people keep no more than a two-week supply of food on hand, and restock once a week.

Also on hand was Zoe Olson of the Nebraska Restaurant Association, who said restaurants are safe, and take more sanitary precautions than most people do in their homes. Olson said many restaurants are limiting operations to deliveries or drive-thru, and urged customers to adopt a modified version of “remember your waitress.”

“Certainly our waitstaff who rely on tips, they can become delivery drivers and still receive those tips. And by the way, when you do carry out or go through the drive thru, you can leave a tip. It's okay -- we'll take your money. Because remember, these are your neighbors. They are your friends. They rely on the money that they're receiving,” Olson said.

Theresa Thibodeau, who owns Primrose School daycare in LaVista, said the 10-person limit on gatherings applies to the number of children in each room of a daycare. She asked patrons who can take care of kids at home to do so if their spaces are needed for children of essential personnel like military or law enforcement officials.

Ricketts clarified that that 10-person limit is the law in Douglas County, where the Board of Health has adopted an order, but is guidance so far in the rest of the state. But he said Nebraskans are complying with it. He said it applies to gatherings in places including bars, restaurants, sporting events, concerts, weddings and funerals. But there are also places it doesn’t apply.

“What does not fall within those 10-person guideline(s) is office buildings, private businesses like that where you don't have the … at large members of the public just walking in to do business there. So office buildings, factories, you know, all those sorts of places -- the Capitol here, you know, while the Legislature is not in session, the Capitol building is open. So I have no intention of shutting down those private businesses,” Ricketts said.

Asked about employees who feel uncomfortable being required to come in to work, Ricketts said “What I'm telling folks is, ‘Hey, if you've got an office building with 1,000 people in it, and we've asked employers to try and figure out how to work from home, and if you get 500 of those folks to work from home, that's great. We're not going to shut down the office, but we want people to continue to work. With regard to a private business, if an individual is uncomfortable, that's really up to the individual to take that up with their employer with regard to how they handle that because we are still expecting people to work.”

The governor concluded with an appreciation and a reminder to the state’s residents. “Thank you very much to all Nebraskans who are taking these commonsense steps to be able to limit the spread of the virus in our community, and protect the most vulnerable people that we have: older people with underlying health conditions,” he said.